CAROL WYATT – ORBITUARY         (October 20, 1943 – April 1, 2023)

In the seventies and eighties she was one of the most sought-after mezzo-sopranos in Germany and other European countries. Carol Wyatt had extensive guest contracts with the Hamburg State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opera Houses Cologne and Düsseldorf-Duisburg, she was a guest at the Munich State Opera, in Stuttgart, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Hannover, made her debut at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Amneris and at the Vienna State Opera as Eboli. The Eboli was one of her absolute highlights alongside the Azucena, Amneris, Santuzza, Dorabella and Marina.

Carol Wyatt was born in Marshall, Texas, studied singing at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, with Tina Piazza, and continued her studies in Italy at the Milan Conservatory with Tommaso Jappelli.

She made her official stage debut at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo as Amneris in "Aida".

At the beginning of the seventies she came to Germany and was engaged by Christoph von Dohnanyi at the Frankfurt Opera House. Two years later, August Everding and Horst Stein brought her to the Hamburg State Opera, where she was able to develop her roles of dramatic mezzo-soprano. In addition to her activities and opera engagements in Germany, her international guest performances have taken her to Italy to the Spoleto Festival (Mozart Requiem under Thomas Schippers), to Florence as Fricka in "Rheingold" and "Die Walküre" under Zubin Mehta, to Opera Ireland in Dublin as Amneris, to the English National Opera North in Leeds as Charlotte in "Werther", to the Canadian Opera in Toronto as Johanna in Tchaikovsky's "Maid of Orleans", to the Opera Houses of Belgrade and Split as Amneris, to the USA to Cincinnati (Rossini's "Il Conte Ory" under Thomas Schippers), to the Portland Opera as Azucena, to the Verdi Festival in San Diego as Amneris in a new production of "Aida" by Tito Capobianco, to New York to Mendelssohn's "Elijah" at Avery Fisher Hall under Zubin Mehta with Sherrill Milnes and Leona Mitchell. She also sang Mendelssohn's "Elijah" at the Göttingen Handel Festival and in the Hamburg Musikhalle, where she also sang the Messiah as well as Bach's Passions, Verdi's Requiem, and Beethoven's Ninth every year. Further concert guest performances have taken her to Vienna, Geneva, Helsinki and Madrid, among others, and she was also a regular guest at the Berlin Philharmonie.

In addition to her dramatic mezzo-soprano roles, she also made excursions into soprano, for example she sang the role of Laura in Schubert's "Die Freunde von Salamanka" at the Schubertiade in Hohenems, in Turin she sang the soprano part in Zemlinsky's "Lyric Symphony", for RAI Torino she recorded Dallapiccola's "Volo di Notte" (La Signora Fabien) and Shostakovich's "14th Symphony", to finally make her role debut as "Fidelio"-Leonore in 1986, which she sang at various German opera houses, including the Staatstheater Hannover, and at the St.Gallen Opera House in Switzerland she made her role debut as Marie in Alban Berg's "Wozzeck".

Her repertoire includes other contemporary operas such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten" (The Soldiers) (role of the Countess de la Roche), which she has sung in new productions at the Hamburg Staatsoper and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin), Gottfried von Einem's "Kabale und Liebe" (Lady Milford), Alfred Schnittke's "Faust-Kantate" (which she sang at the Wiener Festwochen and also in Helsinki), Wolfgang Rihm's "Oedipus" (role of Iokaste), further songs by Igor Stravinsky (Shakespeare Songs, Joke Songs, Cat Cradle Songs), Leonard Bernstein's "Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah", and Luciano Berio's "Folk Songs", which she has performed with both the Wiener Symphoniker and the Berliner Philharmoniker sang. In the early 2000s, she founded the "Song of Joy Ministries" and became an ordained pastor.

On April 1, 2023, Carol Wyatt passed away at the age of 79.

                                                                                                                                 Wolfgang Schmitt